The Archibald Prize is given annually to the senior who has achieved the highest grade-point average during four years of study. It is accompanied by a cash prize.

The award was made possible in 1928 from a $1,000 bequest from the Rev. Andrew Archibald, who died in 1926. The award commemorates 15 years of work by the Rev. and Mrs. Archibald for the Congregational Church in Iowa. Archibald was a Grinnell College trustee from 1890 through 1899.

The President's Medal was redesigned in 1993 by Sheena Brown Thomas '71, a designer/goldsmith with Elements Ltd. in Des Moines, Iowa. The previous medal was designed by the late Louis Glenn Zirkle, professor of art.

Thomas also designed the first Archibald Prize Medal (given for highest GPA in the senior class, and also awarded during Commencement), which is compatible in design with the President's Medal. Both medals are adaptations of the President's Medallion, which is worn by the president of the college as an emblem of office at all Grinnell academic ceremonials and when the president officially represents the College at academic occasions elsewhere.

Cast and fabricated from silver, both medals are formed in a soft triangular shape and include the Grinnell College seal.

The seal uses a modified oval design enclosing four laurel leaves and the founding date: 1846. Raised letters surrounding the laurel leaves proclaim, "Collegium Iowense Grinnelli" and "Veritas et Humanitas" -- Latin for "Truth and Humility." The honoree's name is engraved on the back.